Linglot

The Pimsleur Method is among the most popular language-learning programs in existence today. And rightly so–the programs are well-designed, unique, and effective. I’ve used Pimsleur audio material in my language-learning adventures, alongside other methods of course, but Pimsleur has been a favorite. I have gone through almost all of the Spanish lessons, and so far they have been well worth the money.

Pimsleur courses cost around $200 each. This may seem a lot at first, but each course contains around 30 lessons featuring real conversation with native speakers of the language. They are well worth the money–I have experienced better results with Pimsleur than many other audio courses (and I have tried quite a few). Additionally, they are much cheaper than college classes, and can be just as effective, if not moreso.

The only downside to the Pimsleur Method is that very little of the written language is taught. This is understandable, I think, as there is no “all-in-one package” when it comes to language-learning. As always, it’s best to have several approaches to learning a language, instead of focusing on just one method.

iTunes can be an excellent resource for free language-learning material. Originally developed for the iPod, Podcasts are Internet broadcasts on a variety of topics anywhere from politics to news to college lectures to language-learning.

Podcasts can be easily found and downloaded with iTunes, and kept and listened to forever with iTunes itself, another media player, or an mp3 player. The best thing about podcasts is they are free. Free stuff is cool. Especially if it’s quality, and there is a lot of quality stuff on iTunes.

Language-learning Podcasts can be found on iTunes by:

Downloading and installing iTunes

Visiting the iTunes Store, via the link on the left side of iTunes

And finally, going here and here

There are dozens of language-learning podcasts, and the most popular ones are listed on the front page for your convenience. As of right now, CoffeeBreak Spanish and JapanesePod101 are some of the most popular. I’ve listened to both, and they actually are pretty good. Another one that caught my eye was The French Pod Class.

Eleena from Voices of Español has been commenting on some of my posts here, and I discovered her excellent blog and podcast. I’m really shocked that I didn’t see this before, as it seems to be a fantastic site. It is written bilingually, with both English and Spanish versions, and the Spanish version is good practice for me. The podcasts are great, and can be listened to via the online flash player if you don’t have iTunes. This is pretty handy, especially for me while at the university computer lab, where iTunes isn’t installed. For archiving and putting on an iPod or other mp3 player, iTunes makes it easy to download all of the episodes.

The only thing I’m wondering about (it’s not a complaint, just a curiosity), is why does the author speak in her podcasts with the ceceo? She is from the United States, but speaks Spanish with the accent of someone from Madrid. This accent isn’t common in the USA, or the majority of Central and South America, for that matter. Perhaps she just likes the sound of it. I personally prefer the sound of the seseo.

It can be hard sometimes to find quality learning material, and it’s very frustrating to buy something only to find out that it’s a piece of crap.

I have launched a store featuring language-learning products that I have found to be extremely useful (even essential), and also products that I’ve read good reviews about and am considering adding to my library. Below is a sample of the products available in the new store.

Sales are handled through Amazon.com, so they are as secure as can be. I get a small commission (currently 4%) per item sold, so if you like this site and are interested in supporting it, I’d really appreciate it if you buy through the store.

It’s still a work in progress, and new things are continually being added, so be sure to check back often!

Everybody loves free stuff, me especially, and I can never pass up the opportunity for free language-learning material. FSI-Language-Courses.com is the home for language courses developed by the US Government, with the taxpayer’s dollar (okay, so they’re not entirely free..), and are public domain, meaning there are no copyrights in place and the material can be traded freely.

There are over 30 language courses available, from Spanish to Thai to Hungarian, and more are continually added. They are organized into lessons in mp3 format, with accompanying text in PDF format. The lessons are of pretty good quality, and are organized well. They can be burned to CD or added to an iPod, and the text can be printed out or read on a PDF reader.

Definitely worth the time and blank CDs.